World of Football
Usual and not so usual Football News from around the WorldArchive for March 10, 2007
Makaay vs Kaka (Champions league Quarters)
AC Milan have been paired with fellow European heavyweights FC Bayern Münich in the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals after today’s draw in Athens, host city of this season’s final.
Milan and Bayern met most recently in the first knockout round of last year’s competition when the Italian side won 5-2 on aggregate.
The other matches see PSV Eindhoven and Liverpool FC pitted together once more following their group-stage games in the autumn, while AS Roma face Manchester United FC, and Chelsea FC take on Valencia CF. The ties will be played on 3/4 April and 10/11 April.
If Chelsea and Liverpool advance, they will take part in a repeat of the 2005 all-English semi-final won by the Reds.
The final will be staged at the Olympic Stadium on 23 May.
Hammam re-elected as Asian Football President
Mohamed Bin Hammam of Qatar has been re-elected unopposed for a second four-year term as president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the AFC said here on Thursday. The 58-year-old Bin Hamman was re-elected as the only candidate for the position, the AFC said in a press release.
Bin Hammam was elected for the first term as the president in 2002, and he will be formally sworn into his second term on May 8,2007, during the XXII AFC Ordinary Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Also re-elected unopposed as AFC vice-presidents were Zhang Jilong from China, Vernon Manilal Fernando from Sri Lanka and , Malaysia.
Yousuf Yaqoob Yousuf Al Serkal of the United Arab Emirates, who was elected for the first time, will be the fourth vice-president.
FIFA lifts ban on Kenya Football Federation
The FIFA Emergency Committee has today decided to lift the suspension imposed on the Kenya Football Federation (KFF) on 24 October 2006 on certain conditions.
This decision,recommended by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), was made possible by the positive developments that have recently been noted in Kenya.
A delegation, comprising of two members of the CAF Executive Committee, Dr Amos Adamu (Nigeria), who is also a member of the FIFA Executive Committee, and Mohamed Hatimy (Rwanda), visited Nairobi and secured the following:
- a declaration from the sports minister not to interfere any further in the running of the KFF;
- respect for the agreements reached with FIFA (in particular, the agreement signed in Cairo in January 2006) as well as observance of FIFA’s Statutes and principles;
- the immediate dissolution of the normalisation committee installed by the sports minister and the assurance that the KFF will be run by structures recognised by FIFA and chaired ad interim by Mohamed Hatimy;
- the withdrawal of any pending legal proceedings.
A FIFA delegation will visit Nairobi from 14 to 16 March 2007 with a view to implementing a road map for the immediate relaunch of Kenyan football with amendment of the KFF statutes in accordance with the instructions sent to the 207 FIFA member associations.
